Remarkably Peculiar
by trainlindz
Summary: During OotP, Sirius makes Tonks realise her feelings for Remus. What is she going to do about it?
1. Remarkably Peculiar

_Written for the March R/T Challenge on LiveJournal using the prompt #7 - picture of a note on a fridge. Please Read and Review!_

_

* * *

_

Remus Lupin is a remarkably peculiar man.

Tonks had been leaning on the door frame watching him silently for the past several minutes. He had just returned from a mission for the Order an hour ago, and in Tonks' opinion he looked completely exhausted, from the way his eyes drooped and shoulders slouched forward, but he had waved off the suggestions that she and Sirius had put forward that he put his feet up and relax for the afternoon and had retreated back to the library.

* * *

Sirius shook is head as his eyes followed Remus out of the room. "All work, and no play makes Moony…"

"A dull boy?" finished Tonks. She had noticed that Remus had become increasingly quiet over the past couple weeks. Some would say that she was looking too deeply into it, as Remus Lupin was naturally quiet sort of bloke, but there was something distressing about his actions. He was pulling away from others. Where he used to sit and joke with Sirius, he now sat in silence looking into his tea. He used to chat with Tonks in the mornings about the tabloid news in the Daily Prophet, but now he was skipping their morning ritual entirely. Tonks had come to depend on that bright spot in her day before she put on her charade as a loyal Ministry employee, and she missed him. In fact, she was surprised at how much she did.

"Well, I was going to say depressing wanker, but yours fits too." Sirius sighed, "I know why I'm depressed, stuck in this place without anything to contribute," muttering as he kicked the chair beside him, "but I don't get Remus right now. He can come and go, he can do something useful for the Order, and he's got a beautiful witch. Sure, he's being used as a face of the werewolves by the Prophet, but…"

"He's got a what?" Tonks was shocked. All the time that they had spent together, and he had never mentioned a girlfriend. Or worse, a wife. _Or worse?_ Why would Remus having a wife be a bad thing? He'd be happy, and loved. What would be wrong with that? She should be happy for him. She really should. _Why aren't I happy for him?_

"I guess I should rephrase. I meant he's got a beautiful witch within his reach. Here you are right here. You fancy him, and he's mad about you. All he needs to do is make a move, and BAM!" Sirius slammed his hand on the table, making Tonks jump in her seat, "Happy Moony, happy Tonks, and happy Sirius who gets to live vicariously through their bliss."

Tonks could feel her eyes growing wide and her jam dropped on its own behalf. It was only two in the afternoon, how much firewhiskey could have Sirius drank or had he finally cracked? "Why would you say that I fancy Remus? He's my friend. Colleague, really. Mere acquaintances if I'm telling the story right."

"Then would you care to explain that look on your face when you thought he had a significant other? Because it was really entertaining, and if it wasn't about the fact that you want him in your knickers and can't stand to think about him with anyone else, I'd like to hear that story. It's bound to be a good one." Sirius rocked back on his chair and gave Tonks a wink.

Tonks had the sudden urge to get as far away from Sirius as humanly possible. She stood up, and walked around the table to head out of the room. Passing Sirius, she nudge the leg of his chair and continued on her way, smiling to herself as she heard him crash to the floor behind her.

_

* * *

_

I fancy Remus Lupin.

It came to Tonks in a flash as she watched him in the library, as he stared at the wall in front of him, apparently in deep thought. There wasn't one thing that she could pick out, it was simply everything about him. His humour, his intelligence, his caring, he was the entire package. She groaned to herself. _Why hadn't I realised this before?_

Hearing her, Remus turned around and seeing who it was, changed his neutral expression into a small smile. "Tonks. Care to help me with something?" Gesturing towards the wall, Remus stepped back and shook his head. "I've been staring at this for so long I rather get the feeling that I'm missing something simple."

Tonks slipped in and joined him looking at the wall. She could now see that it was covered top to bottom with Post-It notes. Hundreds of them, in several different colours with scribbled writing on them that appeared to be outlining Order reports and tasks. "I'd love to help, but, um, do you have some sort of system?" Looking at this wall was making her feel dizzy, and if Remus had been staring at this collage for a while, it wasn't hard to think that he may have glanced over something. No wonder he had been retreating, this was driving her mad already and it had only been thirty seconds.

"Ah, yes. My system is quite simple. The Post-Its are chronological as to when the Order received the information. Top to bottom, left to right. I'm looking to see if we missed something leading up to the attack on Arthur. If we can find what we missed last time, we can look for something on this wall that we may have thought inconsequential at the time, but may be a hint of something coming up in the future.

Tonks nodded. She had known that Remus was an intelligent man, but this was sheer genius. He had mapped out everything that had ever been reported at an Order meeting, and many things that she had never heard about. She realised that he must be privy to information that she wasn't, and that said a great deal about his character. He had things only Dumbledore would have known on this wall, and knowing that Dumbledore trusted him above others made her smile inwardly. He truly was remarkable. "What about the colours?"

"Each colour Post-It reflects who brought in the intel and it helps me keep it straight visually. The white ones are Dumbledore, green is Severus, blue is me, red is Hagrid, pink is you, etc." Tonks' eyes scanned the wall and was able to begin to see the patterns and sort out who was what colour, and giggled a couple times when she saw that Kingsley's assigned colour was purple, and that McGonagall's were also white, but had a picture of a squat man in a kilt on them say 'Up Yer Kilt!"

Remus continued to stare at the second row from the bottom. "I think it's something missing around this point, but I'm just missing it." Tonks moved forward and examined the row in question and inspiration struck.

"It was the same Death Eater patrolling the Department of Mysteries the same night that Sturgis Podmore got found out." She stood back and pointed higher up on the wall to a pink Post-It. "I was the Auror who had to interrogate Sturgis for 'breaking into a restricted area'. I cast a _muffliato_ on the Quik Quotes Quill during the interview and asked him who it was. It was Yaxley both times."

"It was that snake of Voldemort's that got Arthur not a Death Eater, Tonks."

"But Yaxley was there. He was at the ministry that night. Look in the report Kingsley brought back!" Tonks pointed at the purple Post-It beside the multiples detailing Arthur's attack. "He had to compile a list of everyone who was at the Ministry that late into the evening. It was all custodial staff, and Yaxley. He may work there, but there was no reason for him to be there that late. He must have let the snake in"

"Hmm. It appears that we may have underestimated Mr. Yaxley. I hadn't thought about how it had gotten in the Ministry in the first place. It couldn't have just slithered in the front door, could it?" Remus closed his eyes and grinned. "This is such a relief. It's been bothering me for weeks, and I wasn't able to lay out everything while the children were here over Christmas. Of course, that relief completely gives way to the fear that we may have a new senior Death Eater in the game. But, I do believe that a celebration is in order. Would you like to go out for some tea?"

Would she like to go for tea with Remus Lupin? Of course she would, but what of her newly discovered attraction to him? Could she pretend that they were just friends, or could she take the chance that he might be interested in her as well? Sirius had said that he was mad about her, but how right could he be? Tonks grinned to herself when she realised that he had been right about her and she hadn't even known it herself. That Sirius Black was one perceptive git.

She turned towards Remus and saw that he was writing something down on a blue Post-It. He stuck it to the wall at the end of the row and looked back at her. Tonks read it and broke into a huge grin.

_**RL is terrified as he asks NT out for tea at the shop around the corner.**_

Remus gazed down at her and had a gleam of hopefulness in his eyes. The tiredness that Tonks had noticed earlier had vanished, and the boyish charm had returned. Tonks reached around him, grabbed the pink pad and a pen and added her response.

_**NT is thrilled and is ready to be escorted away by RL. She may even treat him to a biscuit if he plays his cards right.**_

Remus chuckled nervously at her response. He then reached down and took the two Post-It's off the wall and carefully tucked them neatly into his pocket, so not to tear them, and led her out of the library. True, it was a little peculiar that she had been asked out via a Post-It note on the wall, but Tonks couldn't help be feel that this could be the start of something truly remarkable.


	2. Tea for Two

_Dedicated to Belladonna1986 for her graduation and fantastic new job! Congrats!_

* * *

The well lit coffee shop was a welcome change from the dreariness of Grimmauld Place, and Tonks still couldn't believe her good luck. Not many girls could realise they had a crush on a man and end up on a date with him in one afternoon. She lifted up her tea to blow on it to cool it off and looked across the table at Remus, who looks just as pleased to be sitting with her as she was to sit with him. Neither of them had spoken since they had left the library, other than Tonks telling Sirius they were leaving, and although she was enjoying their easiness in the silence, she knew that for this to be a proper date one of them would eventually have to say something. Mulling over mundane conversation topics like the weather, she finally decided to start with their earlier conversation. It had worked out well for them so far.

"So, have you always been so… thorough? Those Post-Its looked intense."

Remus looked into his tea and smiled, "Hmm. I would like to deny it, but I've always be overly meticulous in my methods."

"But your room looks like a tornado ran through it!" To be truthful, Tonks thought tornado may be a bit of an understatement when describing the state of Remus' room. Books were in piles, clothes scattered across the floor, and boxes stacked in every available space. If she were to be honest with herself, she had been a little bit concerned that Crookshanks would have gotten lost in there when Hermione was visiting over the Christmas holidays. It didn't look very safe for man or beast.

"As organized as I may be, tidiness has never been an ongoing success of mine. I do, however, know where everything is even if it looks chaotic to the untrained eye. I will say that there has been dramatic improvement over the years, though. Sirius could tell you horror stories of our Hogwarts dormitory." He inquiringly raised one eyebrow. "Been peeking into my bedroom, have you?"

Tonks could feel her cheeks redden at once. Before today, if someone had asked her if she had been looking into Remus' bedroom at Grimmauld Place, her response would have been that she was curious person and had snooped through all of the rooms in the house, and she had the Doxy bites to prove it. But now, being actually aware of her actions, she knew that his was the only one she had been into more than once unless she actually needed to be in there.

Across the table, Remus was chuckling at her. "Don't look so alarmed. An auror like you needs to be alert of her surroundings. I do warn you to be constantly vigilant of Sirius, however, if he ever notices the newly pinked walls in your room. I daresay that he might think that anything other than Gryffindor red paint alterations is sacrilegious."

"I see I haven't been the only one snooping."

"Not intentionally, I assure you. I needed a Ministry report that you had but hadn't left out for us. A quick in and out was all I needed."

Tonks grinned at Remus, "Isn't it a bit soon for that?"

Groaning, Remus set his cup back on the table between them and ran his hand through his graying hair, "I really walked right into that one, didn't I? I must be rusty. It has been far too long since I've had consistent banter to keep up with."

Tonks couldn't help be feel a twinge of sadness at his words. Although she and Remus hadn't talked about it, she knew from Sirius and the rest of the Order that at the end of the First War Remus had lost almost everyone he had cared about and was mourning in everyone else's time of happiness. Sirius had said that he had found out that Remus dropped out of the wizarding community for a long time and had kept mostly to himself for years, living as a muggle and it had been Sirius' escape from Azkaban that had brought Remus back into their world. She knew that those missing twelve years weren't first date conversation appropriate, so she quickly reverted back to their original topic.

"You said something about horror stories? What harm could a mess do?"

Whether or not Remus had noticed the circle in conversation, he didn't let on, and chuckled in response, "How much have you heard about Harry's father, James?"

"Not much beyond the usual stuff you read in history books or back copies of the Prophet during the First War. I know that you, Sirius, James and Peter Pettigrew were good friends at Hogwarts, but nothing specific."

"James Potter was a smart, witty and sometimes arrogant boy who was joined to Sirius at the hip. But the thing that stands out most in my mind is something that regularly gets left out in stories about him. James was the owner of two left feet. He could barely walk in a straight line without assistance or bumping into something. If you put him on a broom he was magnificent, but something didn't process down to his feet and was literally a walking disaster. It was especially bad when you throw my mess into the mix."

Tonks was immediately sympathetic to James, being equilibrium challenged herself, "Let me guess, he tripped over your piles and hit his head off something?" More than a couple times, Tonks had the passing thought that if she were to morph away her hair, she would discover that her head was terribly misshapen due to the numerous knocks on the head that she had received. She had never tested out this theory, as some things were better off not knowing.

"On more than one occasion, I'm afraid. I remember the most spectacular spill where he tripped over one pile, hit his head off my four poster and then landed in another pile, which happened to be the nesting place of my current Herbology assignment. He claimed that he smelled of dragon dung for weeks. Which was pure exaggeration as it couldn't have been more than a few days."

Tonks couldn't hold in her laughter, "I can see it perfectly, although most people wouldn't probably see it from the perspective of the faller. I can see myself doing the exact same thing. You should keep your piles tidy for those of us who frequent being on the floor. It's just safer that way."

"You may have noticed that I keep my mess contained to my own room and the wall of the library. Grimmauld Place is a relatively Nymphadora Tonks safe environment, with the possible exception of a stray umbrella stand or crockery. It's completely in your best interest."

"That's very considerate of you, looking out for me like that. Here I was thinking that you were just avoiding the wrath of Molly Weasley chasing after you with a broom to clean up after yourself."

"That is also true." Remus looked out the window into the setting sun and sighed miserably. "As much as I'd like to sit here all night, I really must be getting back. I have a rather pressing engagement I need to attend to." Tonks immediately thought of the moon and it must have reflected on her face. "Nothing like that, Nymphadora. Actually, I'd almost prefer transforming compared to what my evening has in store for me. I have to meet with Severus this evening to compare information that I gathered this past week on assignment and his intel on the next Death Eater plans. Which is fine and necessary of course, but whenever we are alone together, Severus and I revert back to being 16 year olds. No matter how civil we appear to be to each other in public, it generally ends in name calling, immature hexing and finger pointing when we are left unsupervised." Shaking his head at himself, he continued, "I have to admit, an evening at Spinner's End isn't something that I look forward to, especially when I know that I could be sitting in the Most Ancient House of Black playing cards with a lovely witch."

"Oh, Emmeline is coming over tonight, is she?"

"She is, but she seems to think that I'm too easy to beat at cribbage to be worth playing with." With that, Remus stood up and held his hand out to help out of the chair. Once they were both standing, Tonks was delighted to find that he didn't drop her hand and they were standing very close together. "Would it be too bold of me to ask if you'd like to have another caffeinated beverage with me again sometime?" Remus had a hopeful glint in his eye and Tonks found herself unable to stop smiling. As short as this date had been, she wouldn't have changed a thing. It had been the first time that she and Remus had been able to be alone outside of Grimmauld Place and not discuss the brewing war around them.

Speaking softly, trying not to give away the excitement that was churning away at her stomach, she said, "That's not too bold at all. I'd quite like it" With her hand in his, she led him out of the shop into the darkening evening and back across the road to 12 Grimmauld Place, where he stopped outside the door.

"Well, this is where I must leave you for tonight. Perhaps I'll see you when I get back if you are still here." Remus then raised his hand that was still holding hers to his face and gently kissed the back of it before walking a few feet away, smiling back at her, and apparating into the night.

Tonks looked down at her now empty hand and touched the spot where Remus' lips had been just moments before and once again found herself unable to contain the grin spreading across her face.

* * *

_Thanks for reading - I'm not planning on turning this into a big long epic fic, but things may get added from time to time :) Reviewers get cookies!_


End file.
